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Deep-sea fishing vessel launched

A deep-sea fishing ship is launched in the central city yesterday. It’s one of four ships that have been built under the government’s fund for deep-sea fishing vessels. — VNS Photo Ngoc Phu DA NANG (VNS) — The central city of Da Nang launched a deep-sea fishing vessel, as part of the government’s VND3 trillion (US$140 million) low-interest rate loan to help deep-sea fishermen, in a ceremony yesterday. The ship, which is 23m long and 6.3m wide with an 820CV diesel engine for making deep-sea trips, made its first trip to the Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelagos yesterday morning. The VND10-billion (US$476,000) vessel was built by the Da Nang-based Sea Technology Company (STECH) in three months, with 70 per cent of the cost being funded by the state budget. Deputy Director of the city’s agriculture and rural development department Nguyen Do Tam said the ship was the first vessel of the city’s programme to build new vessels and to improve the quality of fish hauls. He said three steel fishing vessels have been built in the city and would be launched later this year. The central city’s People’s Committee approved an eight-year, deep-sea fishing production project, worth VND1.1 trillion (US$52 million), for developing a fleet of 400 trawlers by 2020, with most of them being equipped with global positioning and fish-detection systems. The central city, which has 15,000sq.km of fishing grounds, has a fleet of 2,300 fishing boats, of which 699 are deep-sea trawlers. — VNS